FM: Iran interested in purchase of Russian weapons

14 November 2016 16:12 (UTC+04:00)

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By Gunay Hasanova

Moscow has announced its readiness to develop military-technical cooperation with Tehran.

Iran is interested in the purchase of a wide range of Russian weapons and Moscow is ready to develop military and technical cooperation with Tehran, Sputnik quoted Zamir Kabulov, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s director of the Second Asian Department, as saying.

In October, Iranian Ambassador to Russia Mehdi Sanaei said that Tehran was looking for ways to broaden the scope of defense cooperation with Moscow, even in areas that require coordination with the UN Security Council (UNSC) and need a resolution.

“It is true that the Iranians have a wide range of military-purpose products they would like to buy from Russia. Naturally, some of these products — tanks and fighter jets — are covered by the UNSC sanctions, because there is a moratorium,” Kabulov said commenting on Sanaei’s statement.

“It means that if we sign an agreement on the delivery of such products, we have to request for the UNSC permission in the next five, or rather, the next four years and receive such permission,” he added.

Kabulov further said that his country is ready to work with Iran in the area of military and technical cooperation.

“There are other goods from the sphere of military and technical cooperation that are not subject [to the UNSC sanctions]. There are no problems, but here we should act via the UNSC mechanism, unfortunately," the diplomat said.

Meanwhile, Viktor Ozerov is the Chairman of the Security and Defense Committee of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation pointed out that Iran is interested in supplies of Russian arms and equipment, including T-90 tanks, artillery systems, aircraft and helicopters, and the total volume of orders is $ 10 billion approximately.

"Such negotiations are going on, the soil is created, the portfolio is about $10 billion”, said Ozerov, who visits in Iran as part of the delegation of the Federation Council.